Well, I managed to get this one done . . . I just wanted to wait until my Latin test was over before I wrote the last few bits.

Keith: Well, it's good that you are prioritising your studies before everything else.
Liulfr: But I'm also improving my writing abilities in a way . . . I need to practice . . .
Keith: . . . As usual, Liulfr doesn't own any characters that recognize belonging to this fandom . . .

Big thanks to ren7720 for the prompt!

Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 12: Janitors Do Not Do Laundry

Prompt: ren7720:considering what a SOLDIER job is like their uniform's must get ruined a lot so what happens if the supply was somehow cut off

-o0o-

Cloud had always been curious about one thing.

Sephiroth's leather coat.

It certainly wasn't regulation, Genesis was the only other SOLDIER to not be wearing the proper uniform. That red coat was an eye catcher, fitting the dramatic thespian to a T.

There was only one person he could get the answers from.

And that was Keith.

-o0o-

"Keith? Are you busy right now?"

Glancing up from his computer screen, Keith found it was Cloud standing at the door, a shy smile on the cadet's face as the teenager slipped inside the office.

"Not really, just looking over the expenses for the month. It can wait." Leaning back into his chair, Keith blew a stray hair out of his face, the slight bags under his eyes making him actually look closer to his age than ever before. Things had been piling up that month, and it was starting to put a strain the budget. A couple of trainees were getting on his nerves, the older janitors having to make them do a task twice because they didn't put enough effort into it, meaning they were using more supplies than was necessary.

The problem was that they were SOLDIER cadet dropouts who didn't want to join the infantry. After seeing how much power Keith had and how fiercely he protected his janitors, the cadets had thought being a janitor was more pleasant than joining the infantry. Little did they know that sometimes the infantry sent their trouble makers for Keith to sort out, a few of the commanders actually taking lessons from Keith in order to learn how to control the rowdier groups.

So Keith was feeling rather lethargic at the moment, staring at the computer screen wasn't helping at all.

"I was just wondering, about the General's coat. It's not regulation, so how come he started wearing it in the first place?" Cloud's voice betrayed his burning curiosity, and Keith couldn't find it in himself to deny the boy's request.

The two of them had become close over the past months, both understanding the hardships of growing up in town where nobody liked them. They had bonded over this fact and Cloud had found Keith's tales of petty revenge to be quite entertaining.

Flopping onto the couch, Keith made himself comfortable while Cloud also took a seat, knowing that there was a long story to be told. Mini Cloud eagerly chirped from where he was settled in Cloud's hair, bright green eyes full of delight as Keith began his story.

"Well, it all started about seven years ago . . . Sephiroth was still a 2nd Class and was due to be promoted to 1st . . ."

-o0o-

SHINRA had a laundry problem.

Most specifically their SOLDIER uniforms.

It wasn't that they were in short supply of those willing to make the uniforms, but the fact that they had to keep ordering more.

SOLDIER's tore through their uniforms like a child does with Christmas wrappings, a new order needed to be made every other week.

So when Keith heard his janitors muttering about how they were sick and tired of having to throw perfectly salvageable uniforms into the trash, he began to look into the accounting records. The accounting staff was all too happy to help, having noticed the issue themselves but where afraid to mention it to the higher ups.

He had almost torn the papers in his hands apart from rage when he saw the amount that had been spent in just two months.

Something had to be done soon, or SHINRA was going to go bankrupt.

-o0o

It had been surprisingly easy for Keith to insert himself into the conversation discussing the budgets and why their profit was barely covering the expenses.

The woman in charge of the Budgeting Department wore a scandalous expression on her face when Keith pointed out the uniform expenses were going way over their allocated budget. Neither had she been impressed when Keith informed the woman exactly why the SOLDIER's were going through their uniforms so quickly.

Normally Matilda Rogers was a timid blonde with math skills that could send anyone off the deep end from watching her complete impossibly difficult calculations all by hand instead of with a calculator. However, with Keith backing her up, she gained an immeasurable amount of courage and finally spoke up.

Needless to say they both quickly ganged up on the President in order solve the uniform crisis.

Lazard was all too happy to help gather up the SOLDIER's for the two department leaders to have a chat to his wasteful department.

-o0o-

After a two hour long lecture to all the SOLDIER's, none of them daring to speak after Matilda verbally ripped apart the one man who thought the meeting was a waste of time, it had finally sunk to them all that by constantly throwing away perfectly good uniforms that only needed a good washing to get the blood and mud out of them, they had been putting everyone else at risk. There had been budget cuts and salary cuts, the science department had barley been able to keep up with the orders for potions, ethers, remedies, all the things that the SOLDIER's needed to keep themselves alive during battle.

And when the impact on the weapon budget was revealed, they had all gone white faced at the implication that they would have to settle for mediocre second grade metal for their swords instead of the finest that SHINRA could afford.

Which of course was the highest quality.

The best part of the lecture was when Matilda declared that they would either 'fight in their uniforms or nothing at all!'

Keith had been more than delighted when the SOLDIER's asked how to clean their uniforms, some even taking sowing lessons for the minor tears and fraying thread. Instead of paying with gil, they paid back the lessons with their bodies by cleaning the gyms and floors. It was an appropriate arrangement considering how tight money was in the Tower, and it took about five months before the budget was back on track and no one needed to worry about their wages getting cut.

However, there had been an impact on the few SOLDIER's who hadn't had uniforms to wear because the first thing Keith and Matilda had done was to cut the supply of the uniforms off.

For the first few weeks it had been strange to see SOLDIER's running off to missions in jeans and polo shirts instead of their unusual uniforms.

Sephiroth had been delighted at the sudden freedom he had and begun to use this as an excuse to run around in a Turk uniform (no one knew where he got it but all fingers were pointed at Tseng).

Which made the fan girls even more crazier to see Sephiroth wearing a suit. Despite it covering up his arms, they could appreciate how the suit moulded to his frame, without the bulky cloth in the way they could really see the curve of his spine now.

It had sparked a little debate between Veld and Lazard, both of them forcing Sephiroth to find alternate clothing instead of confusing everyone at why the face of SOLDIER was running around dressed like a Turk.

Sephiroth had to revert to black uniform pants but refused to wear the thick purple monstrosity that was the 2nd Class uniform shirt.

Somewhere along the way he found what would become his signature styled boots after a shopping trip with Angeal, but it was the coat that came out of nowhere.

Sephiroth had been quite tight lipped about it, but after a week people stopped asking and got used to seeing the newly promoted General walk around without a shirt on underneath the thick leather jacket.

Eventually it became a thing that only Sephiroth could pull off, and nobody could imagine the man without it. It also sparked Genesis' impulsive nature and the man soon donned his signature red coat when he was promoted to 1st Class a month later.

-o0o-

Cloud just stared at Keith in disbelief as the man ended his story, Mini Cloud making noises that sounded like giggling and jumping out of Cloud's lap as Keith was offering the fluff – ball a cashew nut.

"How come the SOLDIER's were ruining their uniforms so quickly?" They were SOLDIER's, so how come their uniforms got so tattered when they had reflexes to rely on?

"Well, the power went to their head and they thought they were invincible. The major problem was that they didn't dodge properly so they got clipped by monster claws a lot. We let Genesis loose on them, both Matilda and I noticed his knack for Firaga's and asked if he would like to help teaching his fellows to dodge. He was quite eager about it, and it was also a factor for his quick promotion. We gave him a list of targets each day and he went around ambushing them. It's also where the rumours about him using people for target practice stemmed from."

Ah, that was a rumour that got spread around the cadets a lot. Considering that their teachers in charge of their classes would have been working with SHINRA around that time, they may have been one of the victims.

"No one knows where the General coat came from though?" For some strange reason Keith froze in his seat, Mini Cloud still eating away at the handful of cashew nuts in Keith's palm.

"Keith, you, don't happen to know where it came from?"

The older man pursed his lips, but his eyes were full of mirth.

"Well . . . around the time I happened to have friends under the plate who I told about the uniform crisis. . ."

Cloud leaned closer as Keith began to talk, he was one of the few people that knew Keith was a well known figure down in the slums because Keith had taken him to the weapons seller under the plate on his birthday. He had been given a small but sturdy knife that had been of great help when they had been ambushed by a couple of AVALANCHE goons on patrol once.

"Some of them were fans of Sephiroth, and he had told me how he wanted some sort of coat or jacket to wear instead. I ended up blabbing it to them over a couple of drinks, and a couple of weeks later they shoved a leather coat at me. Apparently they had been saving up to buy him an expensive gift basket but changed their mind after hearing about the jacket idea from me. I have no idea where they managed to find someone selling Zolom skin, but they did. So I gave it to Sephiroth and mentioned it was from some fans of his. He wanted to thank them, but the fans wanted to stay anonymous. They said they would just be happy to see him wearing it."

Now Cloud was speechless, Sephiroth's famous coat was made of Zolom skin?! And it was from a bunch of his fans?

"I . . . did not expect that." Was all Cloud was able to say, Mini – Cloud jumping back into his lap having finished the cashew nuts.

"Yeah, it's not something that should be known, otherwise other fans will think he'll accept gifts and then that would be a problem for the mail department. And they already have it bad."

Cloud could only shudder in agreement, he had spent a guard shift outside the mail room and he never wanted to have that post again. He did not want to know the cause of the suffering moans and wailing coming from that department.

"I'll keep that information to myself then. Thanks for letting me know, it's been bugging me for ages." Keith just smiled in response, but let out a long suffering sigh as he looked back at his computer.

The expenses weren't going to sort themselves out alone.

"Good luck with that. See you around!" Cloud skipped out the door, knowing that Keith needed the peace and quiet as he had to go through a lot of receipts (he refused to let the accounts go to the budgeting department before checking it through himself at least once).

Keith just grunted from where he had buried his face into the couch, waiting for the door to click shut before he lay out fully on the couch.

Musing over how he had come by the coat, his lips quirked into a smile.

He seriously had no idea how to explain to Sephiroth who exactly had given him the coat in the first place.

How could Keith even start to explain how he had gotten a Zolom skin coat from the ladies at the Honey Bee Inn?

Also, he didn't want to explain that the ladies there found Sephiroth to be adorable, even after seven years they still regarded the twenty year old as a child to coddle.

Seriously, they acted like grandmothers that doted on their grandchildren.

-o0o-

A/N: I hoped you enjoyed, the next chapter shall be an insight into Sephiroth, Tseng and Keith's little meetings to complain about their work!

Next chapter: Chapter 13: Work Day Woes

LiulfrLokison out! :3